Battery life suddenly terrible!

[kgilbertsen]

For the last week or two my battery has been draining ridiculously fast. I used to get a day, but now it drains in just a few hours. It's a Sprint phone running 5.0, baseband G900PVPU3BOG1.
Anything I might do to see what is causing it to suddenly drain so quickly?

 

[Crashdamage]

Go to: Settings > Battery and see what is at the or near the top of the usage list.

 

[kgilbertsen]

Go to: Settings > Battery and see what is at the or near the top of the usage list.

Thanks.

Screen 28%
Dolphin (browser) 14%
Android System 5%
Android OS 4%
etc.

The thing that has me concerned is that my usage hasn't changed. But the battery drain is crazy fast now. And it's not been a gradual thing, which would have made me think the battery was going bad. I guess I'll try knocking the brightness WAY down for a couple days to see if that makes a noticeable difference...

 

[LordLugard]

You mentioned software version OG1, which if I'm not mistaken is the most recent OTA containing the "stagefright" fix..

Did you recently update to OG1? Was your battery life better before the update?

 

[kgilbertsen]

You mentioned software version OG1, which if I'm not mistaken is the most recent OTA containing the "stagefright" fix..

Did you recently update to OG1? Was your battery life better before the update?

That could be. I'm not sure exactly when I did the OTA update. Is there a way to tell when I installed it? And are there known issues with the update impacting battery life?
Thanks

EDIT:

The Kernel version is 3.4.0-4781399, dated Jul 30. Could that be the same date as the OS update?

 

[Crashdamage]

I don't see anything unusual in the battery stats. But if your battery is draining really quick either your battery is toast or something must be drawing power.

To get a detailed look at what's happening, try this:
Install System Panel. The free lite version will do. System Panel makes basic trouble shooting of a sluggish device, battery drainage and some other problems simple. Look at the opening screen, 1st one when the app opens. It gives the basic information you need.

With the phone at idle (apps can be open, but nothing such as an active game or file transfer) check CPU usage (pie chart upper left corner). Normally, idle CPU usage should be less than 5-10%. CPU clock speed (top horizontal bar) varies but should be something less than max. If CPU is high, look at the app list on the same screen. Check the CPU usage for each app (small vertical bar on left edge, next to app icons) for offenders.

High CPU usage = fast battery drain. Uninstall or find a way to fix any offending apps and you're good.

 

[kgilbertsen]

Thanks crashdamage, that's a nice app. I am getting CPU usage, bouncing around between about 4 to 15%, mostly about 6 or 7%. The CPU clock is about 300 to 400 MHz, which seems fine. The biggest CPU usage offender is SystemPanelLite, with all other apps not really showing any part of their vertical bars.
Hopefully, knocking the screen brightness way down will do the trick. But this app is nice to have.
Any other suggestions?
Thanks again.

 

[Crashdamage]

Nothing else. Things seem to be fairly normal. At idle, System Panel should be the only thing using much system resources. Normal for it to be the highest.

A G5 isn't very old and I wouldn't expect the to be done already, but if your battery still drains a lot faster than it used to then I suppose you might consider replacing it.

Android since v1.0. Linux since 2001.

 

[kgilbertsen]

OK, thanks. I appreciate your help.